About Me

Buford C. Terrell
Controlled substances laws and their consequences have been the center of my professional life for over fifteen years. I host a public interest television program in Houston, “Drugs, Crime, and Politics” , produced by the Drug Policy forum of Texas, and have done so for most of its ten-year history. Before my retirement, I taught a seminar, “Controlled Substances Law” for many years at South Texas College of Law.
In this blog I intend to explore the features and consequences of those laws, especially the unintended consequences, and look at the need for, and possibility of, changing them. Don’t expect a lot of breaking news or current events, although there will be some. My approach will be more historical and theoretical. I hope to get a lot of criticism – good, bad, and otherwise – and to start some good, heated discussions.

Friday, July 5, 2013

Treat Marijuana Like Alcohol -- Not

Treat
Marijuana Like Alcohol – Not

Great
political strides toward the legalization of marijuana have been made in the
last few years, many of them using the slogan: “Tax and regulate marijuana like
alcohol.”But when viewed as a part of
the broader picture, does this slogan do more harm than good?

While
the slogan makes some sense, it has two defects, both related to the same
flaw.That flaw is that, except for
being prohibited substances (alcohol historically and marijuana today) the two
have almost nothing in common.The
differences between them leads to the flaws.

The
first is that the user of the slogan may be saying “treat marijuana like alcohol”, many –or most – listeners hear “marijuana
is like alcohol.Since alcohol is far and away the most
socially destructive drug, those who hear “marijuana is like alcohol” are reinforced
in their long-held belief that marijuana is a demon drug that turns users in Reefer Madness” homicidal maniacs.

The
second flaw leads from the same confusion.No reason exists to regulate and tax marijuana like alcohol.While legalized marijuana will need some
regulation and may be the source of some tax revenues, the reasonable basis for
this regulation is quite different from that for alcohol.Regulation of alcohol is based on its proven
record as a socially dangerous drug.

The
text of the slogan has been reasonable and politically effective in recent
years, but that text is accompanied by both context and subtext, both of which
are harmful.

The
context within which the slogan is used is one of fear and false history.Everyone under the age of seventy in America
has been raised, educated, and acculturated in a society that loudly proclaims
marijuana to be evil and destructive.They have been taught from the cradle not to use “drugs” and that the
merest taste of a “drug” will destroy them.They accept as a matter of faith that marijuana is one of those
destructive drugs and that it must be ruthlessly suppressed.

Operating
within this context, the slogan, unsurprisingly, evokes the subtext that
marijuana is like alcohol.Most listeners when they hear the slogan
think about marijuana in terms of-- thousands of acute overdose
deaths each year,--tens of thousands of
impaired driving deaths,--more than one hundred
thousand deaths from drug-related illnesses,--daily newspapers full of
domestic assaults and other violent crimes,--untold broken families and
neglected children.
The fact that these horror stories spring from the misuse of alcohol and have
nothing to do with marijuana does not matter because marijuana is like alcohol and therefore must have the
same consequences.

The
political fight is almost over: national polls show a majority favoring
legalization of marijuana and overwhelming majorities for medical use; states
are lining up to legalize, decriminalize, or approve medical use; even in
Congress some discussion is taking place.The betting is no longer on if it will happen, but on when.The struggle now is to change the social milieu
to one more open and accepting.Normalization of marijuana is the next step.

But
that step will need a new slogan – a slogan that more properly portrays both
marijuana’s lack of danger and its social acceptability.Good slogans, like the one being replaced,
are often based on similes, so the problem is to find an exemplar that more
closely parallels marijuana than alcohol does.One psychoactive drug in common use may fill that role, although even it
is more dangerous than marijuana.

2 comments:

The biggest difference I see in marijuana and alcohol is the political shift that took place in the 1960s and 1970s. The international treaties were written in the 1960s and they did not include alcohol, but did include marijuana with coca and opium. The federal law was written in the 1960s and enacted in 1970 and it, too, classified alcohol and tobacco separate from marijuana, coca, and opium. State laws are all based on federal law, 48 states having enacted the Uniform Controlled Substances Act (and the other two look very similar), and so the distinction is continued in state laws. I think we should legalize marijuana on its own merits, because international, federal, and state law all allow it to be declassified, and stop comparing it to the most dangerous drug on the planet, alcohol. I like that slogan from Colorado, marijuana is safer than alcohol. Whoever thought that up was a genius.

The biggest difference I see in marijuana and alcohol is the political shift that took place in the 1960s and 1970s. The international treaties were written in the 1960s and they did not include alcohol, but did include marijuana with coca and opium. The federal law was written in the 1960s and enacted in 1970 and it, too, classified alcohol and tobacco separate from marijuana, coca, and opium. State laws are all based on federal law, 48 states having enacted the Uniform Controlled Substances Act (and the other two look very similar), and so the distinction is continued in state laws. I think we should legalize marijuana on its own merits, because international, federal, and state law all allow it to be declassified, and stop comparing it to the most dangerous drug on the planet, alcohol. I like that slogan from Colorado, marijuana is safer than alcohol. Whoever thought that up was a genius.